My post are usually few and far between however so this new post should indicate how passionate I am about this….

The new Apple iPad. Yes I seriously want one and if I can preorder the 3G before April I will.  The functionality this little wonder brings is nothing short of brilliant.  And might I add obvious (to Startrek fans) and way way over due.

Startrek Data Pads

Apple's iPad

Specific details of the sleek beauty can be found here.

What this device means for games and education is very exciting.  I can envisage a whole new set of applications which take advantage of the natural touch interface, networking capabilities and movement detection functions.  In education we could easily see a return to the days of the chalk and slate, but now a slate with memory and connectivity.  Just brilliant the opportunities here.

But….

Through some level of what I can only imagine is a lack of foresight, the iPad does not have a camera.  Unlike the iPhone and iPod, this bigger brother is missing one of the most important components that we find in practically every mobile device.

Sometime ago I found these excellent augmented reality concept photos by Mac Funamizu.

Is this not essentially a see through iPad? Although the technology isn’t quite there to give us such a lucid augmented reality experience, the simple act of adding a CAMERA to the back side of the iPad would go a long way to making these concepts real.

The combination of the iPad interface, its giro-scope, accelerator, compass and GPS makes it ideal for a mobile, augmented window frame with which to experience on-demand, live, location-based, meta data and social content superimposed in real time onto the scene being viewed.

If the iPhone can handle some promising augmented reality applications, so too can the iPad.

It just needs a camera!!